The ASGCC student election results from May 23 and 24 were postponed until last Friday because of complaints filed against the ASGCC Election Code.
David Arakelyan, the ASGCC President, said that the results were delayed due to the multiple complaints regarding certain individuals and that they were being reviewed by the Election Committee, who decides what the appropriate candidate sanction if the candidate committed a violation.
The Election Committee consists of associated student members that monitors the election entire process.
According to Arakelyan, there are typically three people in the committee: the Election Commissioner, who is usually the ASGCC Vice President of Administration, the ASGCC Faculty/Staff Advisor [Paul Schlossman] and two students-at-large, who are appointed by the ASGCC President and approved by the Legislator before the elections begin.
To run for a place in office is Arakelyan said that all a student has to do in pick up a petition and gather 100 signatures of students. After that the student must attend a mandatory orientation to be endorsed into the campaign.
Almost anyone is allowed to run for office. The only qualifications students have to meet in order to run is to obtain a 2.0 GPA and be enrolled in at least six units. Once the student has been elected into office the student must hold at least nine units.
“Experience is preferable but not a requirement. [The qualifications] were intended to have the process open to all students to eliminate any discrimination,” said Arakelyan.
Results are usually put out several days after the voting process. However, for this particular election, there were so many complaints that it required some time for the Election Committee to go over them and decide what sanctions needed to be taken.
“Some people engage in a behavior that’s emotional or do something that they normally wouldn’t have done,” Arakelyan said. “People have the right to express their emotions the way they want as long as there are no violations to the code. You can’t dictate what kind of behavior should be followed.”
“I know there have been complaints,” said Arakelyan. “A lot of complaints during campaigning become a bit more emotional [this semester] and as far as threats are concerned, [they] have been documented…I’m sure that they [the complaints] were taken care of and dealt with according to the regulations.”
Postponement of the results were held off for about a week because altercations outside during the campaigning of this election, and according to Arakelyan, they have been documented and dealt with in the appropriate manner by the Election Committee and the Dean of Student Affairs [Schlossman].
During that process he said that they sort out what rules have been broken and what kind of punishment that violation merits.
“It’s really a process that involves the complaint to see if the factual information given was correct,” said Arakelyan. “There are complaints from various sides. [So that the committee would need to see what] the appropriate sanction would be.”
Nevertheless, “I’ve been here for five semesters,” said Arakelyan. “I don’t think it has ever happened, even before I was in office.”
